I keep thinking that if I email him he’ll reply promptly, because that’s what he’s done for the past five or more years. He won’t because he no longer can: last weekend Jeremy Pringle – Australian wine writer, philosopher, musician, punk, regular contributor to the twisting threads of Winefront life, and creator of the Wine Will Eat Itself website – was found dead in his Brisbane flat by his family.

He knew so much, felt so much, thought so much and had so much to offer. He was a deep thinker, literally: he held University philosophy qualifications. His site was gaining traction, his articles were being published in leading wine magazines, a growing proportion of the wine industry had come to care what he said.

They did because he said what he thought, an unreasonable rarity, and because his thoughts ran deep. Indeed many of his thoughts, impressions and feelings on wine would soak all the way through to his sleeve. His last weeks of life were rough; he’d recently cancelled his social media accounts and hit pause on his Wine Will Eat Itself site. He’d fought various personal battles in the past; you got the feeling that keeping his head entirely above water had never been easy for Jeremy. He cared about things, often too much. He seemed, at least in the dealings I had with him, incapable of dishonesty, and of compromise. Fittingly, a coroner’s report this week suggested cardiomyopathy; he died of a swollen heart.

Personally I loved his honesty, loved to disagree with him, loved his vulnerability, loved his view that much of what went on across the Australian wine landscape was a load of horse manure. Personally, I still haven’t accepted that I can no longer dip into his well.

Julian Coldrey of the Full Pour wine website remarked earlier today: “I had a great dinner with him on Friday and we talked, as always, furiously about everything.”

How I wish I’d been there. How lucky is Julian. How sad that from Jeremy Pringle it’s all now silent. The Australian wine scene is a far lesser, and less interesting, place as a result.

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The WINEFRONT has flourished as a wine review and information site since 2002. We believe in hard work, realistic scoring, reliability and rigorous independence. We cover Australian wine principally but we extend coverage across the wider world of wine. The hunt for the next beautiful wine knows no boundaries. The WINEFRONT is run by Campbell Mattinson, Gary Walsh and Mike Bennie. A full history of reviews and articles is available to subscribers via the WINE SEARCH tab.
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